Rioting Mainly for Fun and Profit

The recent riots in London have been an appalling spectacle. The last thing a nation in the grips of an economic downtrn needs is to have to spend extra wealth on policing and repairing damage. And the human cost is all the more nauseating. Reeves, a family furniture business some 150 years old, was torched. An old woman was yanked from her car and it was set afire. Shops have been looted of luxury goods and booze. To what end?